Called Ohio’s largest conference on sustainable food and farming, the event offers nearly 80 hour-and-a-half workshops on organic farming and related topics, including 10 with speakers from Ohio State. One track of workshops is especially for beginning farmers.

About 1,200 people — farmers, gardeners, foodies, green living advocates and others — are expected to attend. The conference theme is “A Taste for Change.”

“For 39 years, the OEFFA conference has been the gathering place for sustainable and organic farmers and, more recently, researchers to share information,” says Carol Goland, executive director of OEFFA. And there’s good reason for the sharing.

Fastest-growing sector in U.S. food industryOrganic food is the fastest-growing sector in the U.S. food industry, with double-digit annual sales increases “far outstripping the growth rate for the overall food market,” according to the Washington, D.C.-based Organic Trade Association. Organic food still represents only a small share of total U.S. food sales, about 5%, but the figure now stands at a record high, OTA says.

Ohio State program nationally rankedFor its part, OSU “has one of the strongest organic farming research programs in the United States,” according to Doug Doohan, interim director of the university’s Organic Food and Farming Education and Research program. Among similar programs, OFFER “consistently ranks in the top 10% nationally when it comes to funding and publications,” Doohan says.

Growing relationshipSince then, OFFER and OEFFA have cultivated a “strong and growing” relationship, Doohan says. OFFER scientists increasingly design their research in consultation with OEFFA member farmers, sometimes even conducting experiments on the farmers’ farms, he says.

“That kind of collaborative relationship really helps get at the most pressing issues and addresses them in the most impactful way possible,” Doohan says.

Such efforts “help equip farmers with the information they need” to take advantage of organic farming’s economic opportunities, Goland says. Those opportunities include earning price premiums compared to conventionally produced products, which can boost a farm’s profitability.

Organic farmers, in almost all cases, are prohibited from using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Instead they employ a big toolkit of natural inputs, non-chemical methods and biological processes, such as mulch, manure and beneficial insects, to keep their crops healthy and productive. Other practices, such as cover crops and crop rotation, serve to limit soil erosion, improve soil health, cut the risk of water contamination, and increase biodiversity.

Keynoting the OEFFA conference will be Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based Rodale Institute, and Stacy Malkan, co-director of the food industry watchdog group U.S. Right to Know.

Workshop speakers also will come from farms, businesses, nonprofits, advocacy groups, agencies and elsewhere in higher education, including Ohio’s Central State University.

Buckeyes slated

The speakers from Ohio State, most of whom are collaborators in OFFER, will be:

• Matt Kleinhenz, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, CFAES, “Microbe-Containing Crop Biostimulants: What We Know, What Is Important to Learn.” Feb. 16, 8:30 a.m.